Liars

Thrasher Magazine, August, 2004 by Schmitty

WITH JUST A FEW PAGES dedicated to music and a shitload of bands out there, how do we decide which ones to cover? Well, when it's a band made up of three guys that carry their skateboards everywhere they go on tour, are getting flowed from Chocolate and Lakai, have a new album with a dark theme of witchcraft, talk about how rollerbladers are gay, and the lead singer's name is Angus--they go in the mag. The following interview is one I did with "psyched to be in Thrasher" Julian Gross of the Liars. If they come to your town, check 'em out. They'll rock your liver.--Schmitty

Supposedly at least one of you used to skate, or still does.

I grew up in Venice, CA, and I've skated since l was 12. I used to go to Upland when I was a kid. I went to Venice High School and used to skate the banks before they were barred up. I tucked my skateboard away about a year and a half ago. One of the skateparks they have here in New York, I dropped in on the halfpipe and went to do tricks on the other side--and realized I'm scared and old. My body doesn't snap back, and now I have more on the line than just a cast. I'm just about to play with the Liars, the last thing I need to do is break my wrist before we go on tour and record the new album. So, weird priorities started. But we decided on this last tour we all need decks with us on the bus at all times.

Do you remember your last board?

It was a Chocolate board, I believe. I'm friends with Daniel Castillo and a lot of the Girl Team. My brother used to skate with Tim Gavin in the early '90s, with pressure flips and the trash bag pants. We're on the Lakai flow team and hopefully we're gonna get some Girl shit too. We decided on this last tour we all need decks with us on the bus at all times.

So you all skate?

Oh yeah, we all grew up skating. I remember this one time after Upland closed down we snuck in and had the whole skatepark to ourselves for hours. It was the only time I ever rode the combi. I was too afraid when fucking Malba and Salba were doing airs from circle to square and I was like 12.

What's your take on the difference between the first album and this new one?

As an outsider I'm a big fan of the first record. I enjoyed it the first time I heard it. The new record, it's weird; I find it different but not really that different. The biggest problem is that people are afraid of change. When you change something, people kind of freak out. I mean, did everyone freak out when Thrasher went from newspaper to glossy? You keep moving forward and we attack everything like it's a project. You just experiment and try new things; that's what keeps everyone alive and exciting. You have to make things exciting for yourself or it's just gonna suck. The whole process of writing this record was also completely different. On the first record they had all the songs done before they even had a rhythm section, and they had played the songs for a year already before they recorded Trench. On this one, there were no songs going into recording it. We got to the studio and two months later the record was finished, so everything happened more on the spot. Then it took another two months to figure out how we were going to play it live.

Would you recommend a new listener to listen to your CD or go see you live?

They're two separate experiences, l think. A live show is a performance; its not really meant to mimic the recording. That's how we feel about it. If you want hear the recorded version you can do that at home. I really think that it's a fun live show. We're pretty stupid, in a good way, and I think that's important--the line of not really taking yourself so damn seriously. But if you're going to listen to the record, listen to it more than once.

So it's more of something that will grow on you?

That's how I feel about it, It's hard now to listen to it. Now they all sound like pop to me. People are like, "It's all noisy and weird." And I'm like, "Really? Sounds like a Beatles song to me." I think listening to it is a nicer experience--smoke pot, lay down, hang out with some friends and listen to it. Coming to see us live is a lot more energy, a lot louder. Our sound guy usually kicks ass; they make it so you can feel every thud in your chest.

Any pre-show rituals? Do you guys like to drink a lot before you play?

We're actually pretty damn ritualistic--it's pretty sick at times. There's drinking; it's not like super sauced up, though. Angus is probably the most OCD ritualistic, where he has the same amount of beer from the same company every night.

What's Angus' drink of choice?

He can't drink his drink of choice because he has acid reflux and his stomach hurts. He can't drink anything but beer. I'm a whiskey drinker beforehand. We're very ritualistic. Mostly me and Angus do a lot of stretching beforehand, listening to Jay Z, Biggie and shit like that. It will vary from different sections of the night, but right before we go on it will always be purely hip-hop to get us hyped. There is a lot of stretching, a lot of music, and a lot of smot poking.